Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 1943. WARNINGS IN THE PACIFIC.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 April 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 1943. WARNINGS IN THE PACIFIC.

• SOME rather diverse opinions regarding the outlook in the war against Japan have been expressed of late. There have been one or two hints in general terms of unpleasant surprises in store for the enemy, but a less agreeable indication of what may be in near prospect is given in reported utterances by General MacArthur and by General Blarney. Commenting on the heavy and costly defeat suffered by the Japanese in their latest air attack on Port Moresby, General MacArthur has said that: “It is believed that the enemy’s air offensive has been blunted and his immediate plans dislocated,” but he has also declared emphatically that the secure defence of Australia depends primarily upon the maintenance of adequate air forces. Ilis opinion in this matter appears to be definitely at variance with that of the United States Secretary for the Navy (Colonel Knox) who has said that a Japanese attack on Australia must be accompanied by a tremendous sea force, of which there is at present no indication. General Blarney, too, has said that the Japanese drive to the south is now on, that the recent series of costly Japanese air raids heralds an all-out Japanese bid for air mastery and further that he agrees that “the first need in this area is more combat planes, to ensure that our present air control is not taken from us.” As the position is thus stated by the military commanders in the South-West Pacific, it would appear that a great deal must depend on what already has been and is being done to strengthen the Allied air forces in that area. Any new arrangements now made at the Allied main bases of supply presumably can have little bearing on “the result of the next few weeks of air war,” in the areas north of Australia, the results of which, General Blarney has said, will be of the utmost importance. A degree of confusion must meantime have beemcreated in the public mind by a series of apparently authoritative, but more or less conflicting utterances. For example the observations of General MacArthur and General Blarney follow closely on a statement made in Washington by the Australian Minister of External Affairs (Dr Evatt) that the Japanese in the SouthWest Pacific would be having some bad news before his mission in the United States was completed. It would be, Dr Evatt was reported as adding, a case of good news for the Australian and American forces and bad news for the Japanese. Precisely what this statement implied remains to be disclosed. It must be noted, however, that Dr. Evatt is appealing as strongly as the military commanders for a reinforcement of Allied air strength in the South-West Pacific.